# Contested concept: kindness

_**What you are reading**: one contested-concept page in Deliberus's deliberation graph. Deliberus maps human reasoning — including claims that are contested, mistaken, or extreme — so that disagreement can be examined precisely. A claim's presence here is not an endorsement: the graph records that someone argued it, how it connects to other reasoning, and how far scrutiny has gotten. The metadata on this page describes the state of that scrutiny, not the truth of the claim._

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- **Contestedness**: criterion
- **Diagnosis**: The debate masks a conflict over whether kindness is defined by the absence of immediate pain or by the presence of long-term integrity and trust.
- **Canonical**: `/concept/kindness` (data: `/concept/kindness.json`)

## Senses in use
- **Acting in the best long-term interest of another person, which may involve painful truths.** — used in 5 claim(s)

## Claims using this term
- [In situations where disclosing the truth causes emotional harm without producing beneficial change, the principle of kindness should take p…](/claim/claim_0a9a6958e53a.md) _(sense: Acting in the best long-term interest of another person, which may involve painful truths.)_
- [The principle that kindness is more important than honesty in specific wounding situations serves as the moral justification for the claim …](/claim/claim_80e32c2a0ddc.md) _(sense: Acting in the best long-term interest of another person, which may involve painful truths.)_
- [The moral value of being kind to others takes precedence over the moral value of maintaining absolute, strict honesty.](/claim/claim_a876a3f2302e.md) _(sense: Acting in the best long-term interest of another person, which may involve painful truths.)_
- [In circumstances where telling the truth would cause emotional harm without producing any beneficial outcome, the duty to be kind outweighs…](/claim/claim_cac7d2beba65.md) _(sense: Acting in the best long-term interest of another person, which may involve painful truths.)_
- [The moral value of acting with kindness is superior to the moral value of maintaining absolute, strict honesty.](/claim/claim_f178a8ec517a.md) _(sense: Acting in the best long-term interest of another person, which may involve painful truths.)_